The Gambler

by Silver, Jordan

  As he read on he realized it was the location of a house or some type of structure, which seemed to be backed by government land. It was a bit isolated from what he could make out. Still he didn’t understand the significance.

  She got her toy and pulled up the shit with the codes that she’d shown him before. Then she pointed from her screen to his and back again, as if willing him to get what she was saying.

  “What you got there little Jenna?” Gramps came and stood over her. The others weren’t saying anything, just staring at her. He guessed they too had been blown away by her typing skills. He wondered if anyone else knew about that?

  Probably not, some sick fuck somewhere would’ve had her sequestered in a lab by now if they had. There’s no way that shit was the norm, he’d have to look it up in the Guinness book of records, but he was pretty sure she had whoever was at the top beat by a couple hundred miles.

  Gramps was munching away on his sandwich and looking from one screen to the next.

  “That where she live Jenna?” Andros guessed it was, because she smiled and nodded her head at the old man.

  “And what’s this here Jenna?”

  He pointed at the code of numbers and letters that Andros had been trying to figure out. She got up from his lap and walked over to the calendar he kept on the wall. Walking back to the desk, she found a pen and walked back over. She found a date on the page and circled it before once again drawing a target.

  He finally got it; the senator was going to be killed on that date. The question now was, with the Bonatas gone was the hit still open? And how the fuck did Jenna know about this shit?

  He should’ve cut off Bonata’s balls.

  She crawled back into his lap and after tapping the cage to make her butterflies take flight, picked up her toy and went back to her game.

  Chapter 18

  He nodded at Garrett to go see what date she’d chosen. His answer was just a few days away. He still didn’t know who this woman was and what part she played in Jenna’s life, or why she’d been targeted. Then he remembered that they’d brought all of Bonata’s shit from the hotel back with them.

  He ordered the guys to haul it all in to see what they would find, if anything, so he could put this shit behind him and move on with his life. He needed to go have a quick word with the mother without his little flower knowing too, but he was a bit reticent to leave her with gramps; who knows what the fuck he’d teach her next.

  In the end, he decided to risk it after a strict warning, which the old man ignored.

  “Gramps no more of your crap, I don’t want to spend the next three months trying to teach my future wife not to say that shit.”

  The old man waved him off and asked Jenna to teach him how to play her game. He had one more stop to make, before going to face the woman that he was giving more and more thought of late, to strangling. How was it that her daughter knew about hits and shit?

  He went to the kitchen first to hunt down Willie before he forgot what it was he wanted taken care of in all the fuckery that had become his life. “Willie, I need someone to put a mesh covering under the glass in the conservatory. Then I need you to find me the best place to buy butterflies.”

  “Uh how many were you thinking sir?”

  “A thousand ought to do it for now.”

  “Uh, I think that might be a bit much sir, why don’t we…? A thousand it is sir, anything else?”

  “Yeah, make sure they’re the best and make sure whoever you find can have the mesh up no later than two days from now.”

  He knew the man would do what he asked so he didn’t hang around after giving his orders.

  The conservatory. He hadn’t been back there since he bought the place, though it was the reason he’d bought it in the first place. He’d grown up not too far from here, and Alice had been obsessed with the place. Something about the old world charm in the architecture had drawn her in.

  She’d make him drive out here most evenings and sit in the car just gazing at it. He could see the dreams forming in her eyes as she told him what she would do with it if it were hers.

  He always knew that one day he’d get it for her, no matter what it took. Then one day they’d taken a tour and she’d seen the conservatory and fallen madly in love. She loved anything to do with nature. Gardens and butterflies, those had been her favorites.

  He’d drawn up plans for the day he could buy the place, sometime after college maybe. He’d known even then that his sister would always be a part of his life. That no matter what road he took, she’d be there with him.

  Unless she got married and had a family of her own, but even then he knew he would’ve been a part her life always, since he didn’t trust anyone else to care for her.

  Now he had someone else for whom to build a habitat for butterflies, because he had no doubt that they’d now become a part of his future wife’s life.

  He switched gears as he approached the door where the mother was being held under lock and key. He’s already replaced Vito with someone else, since he’d been on her for the last twenty-four hours. He nodded to the new guy and opened the door.

  She was having her breakfast and watching TV it looked like; and not looking too worried about her kid if you asked him. She looked a little wary at his presence, as he walked into the room and closed the door. He didn’t trust himself around her too long, so he got right to it.

  “How much time did she spend around Bonata and his men?”

  “I already told you since she was a teenager.”

  “That’s not what I meant, you said she did jobs for them, how often and where were these jobs done?”

  “Well, I’m not sure how often, I didn’t keep track; a couple days a week, sometimes more. My husband told me they took her to a room in Alphonso’s place and set her up, and then usually left her to it until she was done and they had what they wanted.”

  “So she was left alone in a strange room for hours.”

  “It wasn’t like that, the men were…they were a little afraid of her I think. She had the sight.” She crossed herself and he almost shot her then and there.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I told you; they thought she could see things and so they spent as little time with her as possible. I thought that was for the best, since she did better when she was alone.”

  She looked at him as if he were a snake about to strike; he figured she could feel the hate coming off of him. He didn’t even want to think about the young girl being left in a room all alone for hours, doing who knows what the fuck.

  “Did she ever not want to do the things they asked of her?”

  “Well yes, sometimes.”

  “And?”

  “Well, we figured she was just having an off day, she always came around in the end.” That was his fucking limit. He had her by the throat before she even saw him move.

  “You greedy conniving bitch, you sold your daughter out to the highest bidder for a few pennies. The only reason you’re still breathing is because of her. But guess what, she hasn’t asked for you once today and if two more days go by with no mention of you, I’m gonna bury you in the fucking backyard.”

  “It wasn’t like that…”

  He threw her back on the chair and walked out, pissed way the fuck off. He thought it best not to pay her another one of those visits unless it was to end her; because each time he saw her, he hated her guts more. Of everyone involved, he held her most responsible. She was her mother, it was her duty to shield and protect. Instead it seemed all she did was exploit and abuse. It burned a hole in his gut that he couldn’t just end the bitch.

  By the time he made it back to the home office, his men had started setting up the computers and shit. There were boxes of files scattered all over the floor. Gramps and Jenna were bent over her toy doing who knows what. At least she didn’t seem to have learned any new words.

  “Fuck, I lost.” Well shit. Of course gramps high fived her for getting her new word right, and
he could just see his sweet little flower going out the window with too much exposure to the old coot.

  “Gramps, I’ll send you home and let the chips fall where they may. If there’re any loose ends out there from the Bonata hit and they come looking for you, oh well.” The old man knew he was full of shit and just ignored him.

  He decided to ignore the two of them and see what he could find in the mountain of shit they had to go through. The files were full of information on Bonata’s holdings and his dealings. He wasn’t much interested in those, because he was pretty sure the other families were already picking over that carcass.

  He was looking for anything that had to do with Jenna, any link that could tie back to her in anyway. He didn’t want any of the new fucks coming after her to use as a guinea pig, he’d shed enough blood for the fucking year.

  When he didn’t find anything on her, or the senator, he next tried to tackle the computer. They had it set up and hooked up to the net, but that was as far as they could go. The shit was locked, and there was no way to get in.

  “Boss maybe your Jenna knows.” She picked her head up at the mention of her name and her eyes landed on the monstrosity that the men had set up on the little table. He’d wanted to keep her out of it as much as possible, but that seemed like a pipe dream now.

  She left gramps and walked over to the computer looking it up and down. It was obvious she’d seen it before as she sat down and started doing her thing. Pretty soon the screen opened up and he just showed her the picture of the senator that he’d printed and she tapped in some words and voila.

  Chapter 19

  There was a shit load of things to read through and he figured now was as good a time as any. He picked her up from the seat and sent her back to gramps to play, while he muddled through what was written on the screen.

  He didn’t say anything about the shadows hanging over his shoulder, since he figured they were as curious as he was about what the fuck was going on. It wasn’t a small thing to put a hit out on a United States senator. She must’ve pissed the wrong people off.

  He soon found a thread to tug on when he learned that this senator was leading a committee to investigate DHS. She’d also spearheaded a campaign against unfair and unjust dealings in the organization.

  The thing that caught his attention, was the fact that in six days she was supposed to release an expose` on her findings on the corruption and mismanagement of not only funds, but also human life.

  Her specialty was children of autism and the shit that was being done to them in the name of science. He was surprised that he’d never heard of her, since she was such a staunch advocate of the very thing he represented in his life. He guessed that was because of his attitude of going it alone.

  He spent the next two hours sifting through the quagmire, until he came upon the crux of the matter. There were some big names involved, names that she was about to reveal to the public. She had information that could topple dynasties here and abroad.

  And somehow Jenna had been in the middle of it. He couldn’t find her name mentioned anywhere, but he knew there was more to come. He was trying to find Bonata’s part in it, why had he had all this information on the senator, and which of the men on that list had hired him to do her?

  It wasn’t long before he found the connection, but his blood ran cold when he found pictures of Jenna and the senator at some type of award function. The caption said Jenna had won an award for outstanding service.

  He kept digging but there was nothing to tell him who, when, or where, this assassination was supposed to take place. He had a pretty good idea about the where since she’d given him the coordinates to the location of a house, but other than that he was in the dark.

  What was he supposed to do now? Was he supposed to warn this person or what? He sat there pondering that thought and making himself nuts, until gramps interrupted him.

  “Jenna wants to play the slots.”

  “What, how would you know that?”

  “She told me.”

  He doubted very much that she had, and besides, he’d been in the room with them the whole time, and except for the tap-tap tapping of the game, he hadn’t heard a peep out of either of them except for a laugh here and there. “Oh really! Exactly how and when did she tell you this?”

  The old man held up his phone. “She texted it.”

  “She what?”

  “Yeah, her little toy has messenger on it and since she has trouble putting her words together, I thought it would be a good idea.” He seemed pleased with himself.

  “Why the fu…why didn’t I think of that? Let me see that.” He read the screen where she told gramps she wanted to play the machines that go ding. How the old man knew what the fuck that meant was anybody’s guess.

  “We can’t go tonight though.”

  “Angel play.” She gave him the pouty face and sad eyes, which meant all hell was about to break loose if she didn’t get her way.

  “Well shit.” How the fuck was he supposed to go to The City when he’d just offed a couple motherfuckers there just the night before?

  This was a bad-fucking idea; but what could he do? She and her new partner in crime were acting like kids in a candy store. He never saw gramps so damn animated in his life. It was a shock to realize that she was good for the old man as well.

  He never gave much thought to gramps’ daily life. The old man was still running his business, still had his connections and a million friends. But now, watching how alive he was with flower, he realized that he might’ve been a bit remiss in his care of the old man.

  He’d just always seen his grandfather as bigger than life, not someone who needed anyone. Now he felt like because of his shutting himself away from life, he’d maybe done the other man a disservice. He knew if it wasn’t for the new addition in his life his mind wouldn’t be running to such thoughts.

  In three days she’d opened his eyes and his heart, she’d given him the will to live again, not just exist. He had no fear of losing her, not as he once had; no one will ever take from him again, of that he was sure. He would protect her with everything in him for as long as he lived. There was no need to hide himself away any longer.

  They got dressed in between her stealing kisses and playing with her butterflies. She’d gone so long without asking for a kiss he’d thought she’d forgotten.

  The doc had come by to check the bandages on her shoulder and make sure she hadn’t opened her stitches or anything like that.

  Andros still wasn’t sure, even after the other man reassured him that she was perfectly safe to fly. But she was so excited about going, that in the end he gave into her.

  They flew in same as the night before, only this time their destination was another casino. He wasn’t sure how things were on the ground, he had no fear of retaliation since no one knew of his involvement, and his men that had stayed behind hadn’t heard any rumblings.

  But he knew there would be an underlying danger in The City with the shakeup of a boss being eliminated. Every gumbah and their mother will be swarming like sharks, fighting for whatever scraps were left after the major heads had taken their cut. The place would probably be unsettled for a while to come.

  He wasn’t worried about anyone thinking that either he or gramps wanted a piece of the pie; their interest lay elsewhere, and those who were in the know, knew that. Plus it wasn’t unusual for him to visit The City twice in one week, rare, but not unusual.

  They made a sight as they headed into the casino from the limo that had brought them from the airport. The old man had one of her arms and he held the other, while his shadows and the rest of the security detail that he’d brought along brought up the rear.

  She had three men on her and there were two on gramps, he wasn’t taking any chances with either of them, never again. Not now that he knew how much each of them meant to him.

  He took her to the machines first, where she looked around like she was in a daze, that look alone made it worth th
e risk. He said nothing as she walked up and down the aisles looking at the different machines.

  He just followed behind and let her enjoy herself. She stopped short and watched some little old lady, as she was about to take a stool in front of a quarter machine; at least he thought that that’s what it said. He wouldn’t know; he’d never been on this floor before.

  He started to call her back as she moved closer to the woman, but she walked with a purpose, so he kept his mouth shut and hoped the grandmotherly type didn’t say or do anything to cause him to dump her ass in the Atlantic.

  Jenna said something to her, but with her penchant for one and two word sentences the lady didn’t seem to get it. She broke out the new phone he’d given her and he took his phone out because he knew what was coming next.

  He read her message and walked over to the lady who was looking at Jenna like she had a few screws loose. Then Jenna moved away and he heard her yell ‘NO’ at the top of her lungs and tried to push some guy off a stool two seats down from the lady. Andros walked over to them and the guy didn’t need much convincing to move the hell on.

  Next he turned to the old lady. “She wants you to sit here. I’ll put the money in no problem.” The machine was five dollars, considerably more than the woman had been about to play.

  She didn’t seem too sure but she changed stools, all the while giving Jenna an odd look. He guessed that was normal, seeing as how she was now surrounded by nine men who looked like they’d walked off the set of a sixties gangster flick, and an exceptionally beautiful if somewhat pushy young woman.

  The first few tries garnered nothing and the lady turned to him in apology. “I’m sorry young man, I don’t know much about these things. My husband just had surgery and we need the money. I’ll pay you back what you lost…” She fished around the suitcase she no doubt called a purse, but his hand on her shoulder stopped her.